A Broad Abroad

the city of guapiles sits roughly ½ way between san jose and tortuguero village. I made sure I was at the guapiles bus station by 9:30 am since there are several hops involved in getting to tortuguero the cheap way. first of all, let me explain that tortuguero village (and the national park) can only be reached by plane or boat. I chose the least expensive: on a boat from la pavona (not even on most maps) through the canals that connect banana country to the coast.

It sounds pretty adventurous, but in fact it’s how most locals get in and out and it’s fairly straightforward if you know all the pieces: get to cariari by bus (thru guapiles), get a smaller bus to la pavona, which is basically a dock, a soda and also a guarded parking lot for those leaving a car – I’m told for $10 per day. I got a combo-ticket in cariari that included the shuttle to la pavona and the boat to tortuguero village – a total of 2600 colones or just over $5. One can also get each separately and take the “clic-clic” boat for the same price. Our guide-extraordinaire and inn-keeper in tortuguero, daryl loth, prefers clic-clic, the local tortuguero business.

I swear our boat driver was imitating the canal scene from The Italian Job or has maybe seen too many james bond movies, but the speed-boat thru the canals was something to experience!! very narrow in parts with the jungle looming over-head, I understand that driving fast allows corners to be taken more effectively, but the effect is the same: exciting. Just so you know, the clic-clic boat left at roughly the same time and arrived quite a bit later, so not all drivers attack the canals with equal vigour.

A friend who studied manatees in tortuguero for several years suggested I stay with his friend daryl loth – who owns casa marbella and is an amazing guide and conservationist. A nice guy from the boat who lives in cariari and spends several days a week attending a school in tortuguero specializing in eco-tourism, showed me to casa marbella where shortly I met a nice trio from Vancouver! Now I understand the world of MEC (mountain exhange co-op), canada’s more-devoted version of REI.

rather than risk a botched delivery of my pack, i arrived at the airport on monday hoping that my pack arrived on the same flight i did, only a day later. success! the relief of having all my belongings was immense and i splurged for the $20 taxi ride to the san jose carib bus terminal for a bus ride over the cordillera de talamanca mountain range and into costa rica’s caribbean basin. it’s a stunning drive.

my destination was Casa Rio Blanco, a property owned by the lovely annette and herbie, several kilometers outside of guapiles. a quick cab ride from the bus station delivered me to the gate of the property: 5 acres of jungle along-side the rio blanco river. their 5 cabins are on the edge of a cliff that rises above the rio blanco river so the view from the cabin porch is of the jungle canopy, though one can hear the river rushing below.

the trail on their property leads down a creek to the river and meanders along it until the swimming hole is reached. it’s really beautiful and refreshing. i’ll post a video. there is also a longer trail across from their property that leads thru some great, more open birding spots – all perfectly safe for a sola hiker like myself. there were frequent downpours but this was not a problem since I had rubber boots provided by the casa. One night it rained all night and I thought I had just better get used to this while on the carib side this time of year, but I was soon to find out this wasn’t the case at all!

every morning there was an included, hearty breakfast and thru prior arrangements annette cooked yummy dinners for extra. i highly recommend a visit here – a great location a little off the gringo trail and convenient for me since from here i go back to guapiles to catch a bus/bus/boat to tortuguero national park. all-in-all a great start to my adventure!

….or i suppose not, since they don’t like raki and they failed to deliver my pack to me in costa rica. i am operating under the assumption that it will be here by tomorrow and i’ve been assured they will deliver it to me wherever i am. am i insane to believe that? well, i’m going to anyway.

Michael and Dawn, who own and run The Dragon Fly Inn (wi-fi!) in Alajuela, have made me feel very at home and i got all my “chores” done around the alajuela parque central, which is very festive on sunday and makes for good people watching. now i have colones (CR currency) and marlaria meds, which were extremely cheap, btw.

now that i am here any anxiety i had about this trip has washed away. latin america is such a vibrant place and this time of year the weather is gorgeous. just keep you fingers crossed that my luggage woes are remedied quickly.

now i’m off to the hammock with my book. pura vida!!

yep, shortly i’ll be on a plane to san jose, costa rica. amy and brian (and maybe baby sam?!?) are giving me a ride to BART, then i’m on to SFO. i’ll fly thru LAX. since i just finished all my prep and have 45 minutes to spare i am lifting a glass of raki to the luggage gods who will hopefully transfer my pack promptly so i will find it, and all it’s carefully packed contents, waiting for me in san jose. i’m obsessive about not checking bags so this is my equivalent of starting my trip out recklessly :). surely i’ll loosen up after some time on the road!

i can’t say i’ve had much time lately to let this trip soak in. that’s probably just fine. but now that i think of it, i am looking very forward to having howler monkeys awake me at 5 AM (i’ll change my tune later) and to hearing the birds and geckos chirp.

i still just thank my lucky stars that i am able to do this. no, i haven’t much looked back. and for the next hour i’m trying not to look forward either. just sit in my apartment and enjoy the view of oakland and lake merritt, contemplate my good fortune, my good friends and family. and finally, check and double check that i have my passport and my ATM cards cuz the rest is just details.

so from here on out you will find that any posts have a “point” along my travel route on the map in the right sidebar. you can track my progress (by clicking on the map) and then click on the locations to read the entry about that particular place. again, if you have questions or comments please bring them on!

ADIOS!!

the relaxing weeks i’d hoped for before my departure have been rather more consumed by paperwork than hiking our bay area’s lovely trails. i had no idea how many mundane tasks there would be: health insurance, 401k moves, stock option arrangements, pre-paid taxes/extensions and suspending various utilities – to name but a few. none of it as simple as it should be. life in america doesn’t easily accommodate those “of working age” who do not work. yet it is possible with some doing and i can’t say i aspire to be part of a system at the other end of the spectrum – one that makes it too easy for those who do not work and creates a burden for those who do.

i suppose the fact that i am an obsessive “minimalist” packer doesn’t help. i look at every item and think “can i get one that is smaller and lighter?”. i am sure this impulse will serve me well in the coming months, but for now it has me surfing the net more than i should. and ladies, toiletries do us in! then i remember the packer’s adage “if they are living without it where you are going, you too will survive without it”. it’s all a matter of adapting.

this is a good segue to a heretofore undiscussed topic. one primary objective when i travel is to exercise my mental flexibility. i’ve observed that people, as they get older, become less able to deal with unanticipated events. they become creatures of habit, and because they fear encountering the unknown they restrict the likelihood that they encounter that unknown. their world shrinks and it is inevitable that their mind becomes narrower, smaller and less agile. travel of this sort is part of my vaccination against this.

i am 40 today (woohoo!) and i believe that curiosity, adaptability, patience and passion/compassion can go along way to keeping one young – not just a physical challenge, but a mental one. and a far better one than playing “brain age” on your PSP in my opinion. happy birthday to me!!!

please click to play – I love this clip! thru a fellow traveler i found this amazing respresentation of what brought me HERE….to the brink of exploring the world solo…..a VERY great unknown.

this coming week will be my last week of gainful employment (for now). but, wow! there’s pressure here because i’ve declared that some of my ills are rooted in the fact that i work from home. now i will have no excuses. i can get out and do whatever i like until i leave in december. HA, i guess i can to whatever i like after that – i will just be doing it in another country!

last week was my final visit to the corporate office, where i felt as if i was given the rare opportunity to attend my own funeral. i didn’t fare too badly! i was touched by everyone’s generosity and interest in my future endeavors: my “afterlife”. however, i think my travel plans are less understood than an intangible “afterlife” because we are talking about THIS life. I CONTROL MY DESTINY! you’ll just have to stay tuned to see what i discover. i only know this is what i need to do.

pushkar213

Originally uploaded by peggydaly

I’m making sure i can post photos directly from my Flickr account so here is a photo i took in Pushkar, India almost exactly a year ago. Capturing the beauty of people and places in a photo will be one of my pursuits while i travel thru central america. i find it is a very rewarding way to share my experiences with family and friends. especially when i travel solo. and it’s amazing the resources one has available to accomplish this! i also just figured out how to embed a youtube video!

I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to some amazing places. with a sister living in africa, i’ve been able go places i would have never been able to access on my own. with generous vacation time i never allowed my vacation bank to grow too large. i hear about these people who actually lose vacation time they haven’t used and they are completely a mystery to me. The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. –Augustine (354-430).

i’ve accomplished 2 major steps. first, my airline tickets are purchased. for me, this made it offical and gave me a framework. my trip has several “fixed” points:

arrival: 12/8/2007 san jose, costa rica
christmas: bocas del toro, panama
easter: antigua, guatemala
departure: 4/26/2008 cancun, mexico

after doing some research i came to the conclusion that i would need to plan for the major holidays. these are also major travel times for people in central america, especially semana santa (easter week). Easter in the colonial city of antigua sounds amazing and the time and place seemed good given my trajectory so i have planned for this. I also hoped to spend christmas with friends in bocas del toro. and i’m thrilled to have a bungalow on isla carenero where deb, dus, rita, jaenne and i will spend christmas and new years!

since i fly into San Jose, Costa Rica, i will travel over to the caribbean coast and spend a few weeks seeing the sights there before heading down to bocas. bocas del toro is an archepelago off the coast of panama where i spent a long weekend during my month in panama. i vowed to go back for more. these are amazing islands with rain forests, wildlife, great people and where the main mode of transport is small boats. after the holidays i will head across panama to experience the highlands, which i have not seen, before heading back up thru costa rica with no need to divert off to the caribbean coast.

so now you know what i know about my 4.5 months! btw – you can use the map on the right tool bar as a ready-reference. when my travels commence you will be able to see my progress across the map with links to milestones!

secondly, the details of my departure from work are being finalized. good bosses are hard to find and so i’m sorry to leave one as good as Laurie. I’ve had a good run at neustar and i am grateful for the opportunities i’ve been given.

so i may have a few posts before i leave. you know, thoughts on how the idea of being a solo female traveling thru central america makes me feel. WOW! excited right now, but i’m sure there will be a lot of other feelings mixed in as 12/8 gets closer. and even more once i begin!

yep, the sun moves further and further down the horizon with each passing day. from my living room window the sun sets between oakland city center’s twin towers around the equinox. and the closer it gets to the winter solstice the less it shines directly in my windows in the evening. it would be nicer the other way around, with the sun pouring in during the winter, but alas that is not how it works. instead i have some really, really warm summer evenings.

my apartment overlooks lake merritt and yesterday, in preparation for the winter migration, they enlarged the “bird only” zone by dragging the barrier floats across the lake and making room for our winter guests. only a few coots and grebes so far but soon the buffleheads, greater and lesser scaups, canvasbacks and goldeneye’s will arrive. and with each day that passes i am a day closer to my departure.

now that my travel plans have become more tangible, i look around and wonder if i will get homesick. i’ve been away for a month here and there, but what i have in mind is different. it’s longer and i’ll be on the move. i’m sure my previous solo travels have helped prepare me but i’m also sure there will be unanticipated challenges. and anticipated ones: alone and sick, noisy room, missed bus, stifling hot, smelly bed, caught in a downpour with my pack. some i can prepare for, some i can’t. stay positive, peg.

i’ve planned a trip back to texas to visit with family before i go: wurstfest in new braunfels with friends, time with the nieces and nephew in dallas, and with mom and dad in san antonio. my parents don’t know my plans yet. i’ve wanted to wait till my job departure is finalized before i told them. and i decided that it’s the better for them to have less time to worry every time they hear a bad story about central america. yeah, i’m 40, but some things never change :).

so if you read this blog at any point and have words of encouragement, bring them on! post a comment!